Indonesian soldiers face jail over torture video

Indonesian soldiers face jail over torture video

2011-01-21 08:31:34 GMT+7 (ICT)

JAYAPURA, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) -- A prosecutor asked the Jayapura Military Court in Indonesia’s Papua Province on Thursday to sentence three soldiers for torturing two Papuans, local daily The Jakarta Globe reported.

Prosecutor Lt. Col. Edy Imran recommended to sentence the three soldiers - Second Sgt. Iwan Riskianto, First Pvt. Yason Agu and First Pvt. Thamrin Makangiri - to 12 months, 10 months and nine months respectively.

The defendants are being charged for torturing Telenggen Gire and Anggen Pugukiwo, who were allegedly Free Papuan Movement (OPM) members, on May 27 behind a military checkpoint. Video footage of the torture was then posted on YouTube in October last year.

One of the victims, who is still in hiding, said in a tribunal hearing via recorded testimony that soldiers had beaten him for two days and then rubbed salt and chili paste into his open wounds.

The prosecutor said that Riskianto deserved a longer jail term because he was the vice commander with greater responsibility. He added the requested sentence for Agu was longer than Makangiri’s because Agu had tortured Pugukiwo’s male organ with a smoldering wooden rod.

Military prosecutors in the indictment had charged the men with insubordination, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 months in prison.


Papua was awarded regional autonomy in 2001, but there’s still sporadic violence due to a low-level separatist insurgency.

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